Day Of The Dog

The big news today is that we got a dog. Well, Mrs Bhagpuss got a dog. I got a dog by association. 

She's not much of a dog, yet. More like a 1:4 scale model of a dog. I was going to take some pictures but I think that's going to have to wait a while. She's asleep right now and what she mostly looks is the wool you'd get if someone sheared an extremely small sheep.

In recognition of the momentous occasion I shall once again delve into my massive folder of fun for whatever songs that mention dogs I can find that I haven't already used. If you wish, you may accompany the music by scraping the bottoms of any barrels you have handy.

I thank you.

Your Dog - Soccer Mommy

Here's one that had to sit out the Dog/Cat Deathmatch on the subs bench back in 2020. It's got a great F-bomb in the opening verse that would sit well in that post I keep talking up that I haven't gotten around to writing yet, the one where I try to make the case for creative swearing in song lyrics. I can see I'm going to use up all the good ones long before I ever get to finish the post but never fear! I'm starting to tag possibles as I find them so maybe in another couple of years I'll have enough new ones to get started.

Rattlesnakes and Dogs - Jenny Don't and the Spurs

I do like me some alt-country, especially when it rolls like a train. Add this to the long list of songs I thought I'd featured before but according to search have not. Going to be finding that more and more the longer I keep doing this sort of thing. I'll stop mentioning it soon.

Call Me Cruella - Florence and the Machine but really Now I Wanna Be Your Dog - Joel McRea (at 2.45 or thereabouts)

If you'd have told me in 1975, when I was playing my cut-out copy of the first Stooges album at ear-splitting volume and making believe I was three thousand miles away and ten years older, that one day a Russian ice dancer would be using Now I Wanna Be Your Dog as her backing music at the Winter Olympics, let alone that the version she'd be skating to would be taken from the soundtrack of a Disney movie, I think I'd probably have punched you in the face. Either that or ripped up my rock 'n' roll membership card there and then and gotten into jazz instead.

Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine

If we're going to have Florence at all I guess we should have this one. I'm cheating a little in as much as this isn't the version I have on my hard drive but there are about a million videos of Flo and the band doing the dog on YouTube and this is probably one of the earliest. I never really cottoned to Florence that much, truth be told, although I like this one and Kiss With A Fist. I never really noticed how seventies she sounds. It could almost be Sonja Kristina singing there.

Jizzney - A Giant Dog

That's pretty much it for songs that mention dogs in the title but there are still a few bands that call themselves after dogs we haven't had. Or to be more accurate that we have but they were doing other songs that aren't these ones. I have no idea what "Jizzney" means and I expect I'm better off that way.

The Walk - Dog Party

One of the big, lasting claims of the punk movement was a return to the three-minute single. I was all for it at the time but these days I feel three minutes is still way too long for most songs. One of the best things about Tik-Tok (and there are a few) is that it's forcing popular perception of what counts as a song to change and fast. Get on, make your point, get off. You'd be surprised how often a minute and a half is more than enough for that. This one's 1.22 and it doesn't need to be a second longer.

Canyons of Your Mind - The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

This is either everything that was right about the 'sixties or everything that was wrong. I'll leave you to make up your own minds.

And I really, truly think that's the last time I can dredge up any more songs about dogs from what I already have. I'd better start looking for some new ones because for some reason the topic keeps coming up. I need some more songs about cats, too. And foxes. 

I'll get right on that.